My latest book, ‘A Dry Hate’, in now avaliable at Amazon.com! Here’s part of the first chapter.
CHAPTER 1
Ivan backed up against the concrete wall of the cell in the Fourth Avenue jail. “Santana,” a steroidally muscular skinhead with guitars tatooed on both biceps, thrust out a hand, fingers clawed for battle. Rage contorting his face, he screamed, “You got cigarettes, punk?” Ivan threw up his hands in defense. Sweat poured down his back, sticking him and his shirt to the wall.
Instantly “Rambo,” a huge, bald and equally tatted detainee, touched Santana’s shoulder. “Not him,” he said, his basso profundo a quiet command. “We’ll find you a smoke later.” He gently turned the shorter man toward the far corner of the holding pen, next to the filthy urinal that served twenty-five men awaiting their initial appearance hearing. Ivan shook, visibly relieved. “Thanks, Rambo,” he uttered as Sheriff Bardo’s seasoned returnees moved away. It was July 5, 2010. The day after Independence Day. What a bitter irony! Despite the excess body heat in this overcrowded holding tank, Ivan shivered. He tried to grasp his new reality. Two months ago, he was a respected university professor. Today, he was locked up on felony charges. He remembered the first day he met Ms. Emily Hartwell, hotshot defense attorney, at the door of his classroom, early in June. Last night they’d wound up sleeping together under the stars. Now he was stuck in a stinking jail cell. He wondered: How the hell did things go so wrong?
The “toughest sheriff in America” has arrested and jailed hundreds of Latinos and activists who get in the crosshairs of his campaign to rid Arizona of illegal aliens.
Professor Ivan Wilder has been handed a two-month course in “Power and Propaganda” at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. He doesnt realize he’s on a collision course with “law enforcement.” Ivan’s class includes the son of a deputy sheriff and an honor student without legal documentation of residence in the U.S.A.
Will Ivan, or his students, be safe from the sheriff’s plan to “enforce the law”? Are Constitutional rights a thing of the past?
